


Awesome Lessons

by Emilys_List



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: Dogs, F/M, Walking and talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-13
Updated: 2007-10-13
Packaged: 2017-12-19 05:51:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/880176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emilys_List/pseuds/Emilys_List
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s a hot, humid night.  Dog walking, short shorts, secrets ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awesome Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Dunder Mifflin Infinity  
>  Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that you recognize. They belong to Mssrs. Gervais, Merchant, and Daniels, and all associated corporations. No copyright infringement is intended.

It’s 1 AM and he’s out of bed – not what he had imagined for the evening. They were taking Pam’s (well – to be honest – their) pug for a walk. He had insisted that she get a dog when he’d heard that there had been a few break-ins in her building. (“A dog will not protect me from a man with a gun,” she protested. “And besides, we spend almost every night together.” He had told her to shut up as he handed over his credit card to purchase dog supplies.) Now, he was sure that having a dog was pretty bad idea.

He looked over at his girlfriend, clad in a pink tank top and incredibly short shorts. She yawned, yanking on the leash. “Come on, Mary, get a move on.”

“No, no, that’s not gonna work. C’mon, Chicken Bone, get a move on,” and the pug began to walk again.

Pam sighed with frustration. “Her name is Mary Cassatt. You come along and call her Chicken Bone and that’s what she responds to?”

He shrugged. “Me and Chicken Bone have a strong connection.” He clutched her hand tightly. In their haste to get out of the apartment, she’d thrown on clothes without a bra and he watched her breasts move ever so slightly, her nipples hard against her top. He licked his lips, looking next at the perspiration on her neck, a few tendrils clinging there that had escaped her messy bun. She yawned again. They had been making out, on a sure trajectory towards sex, but Chicken Bone/Mary Cassatt was feeling left out so she kept climbing on their heads. A walk was the only way to chill her out.

The air was thick, feeling still like summer even though September had just come to a close. She wrapped one arm around his waist as they walked down the street and he felt happy. He felt healthy, too, for the first time in a long time. She leaned into his body and everything felt good and in its place.

Except.

Well.

Jim had already had many reasons to dislike Ryan, but… it wasn’t like he’d really wanted that job. The only thing he’d ever wanted was to be with Pam and he was, and it was not perfect but it was amazing and live changing and soul affirming and all of that.

She was his, which was a new sensation. He wasn’t proprietary, he’d never been a jealous guy, but for the first time, he wasn’t the one feeling like an asshole for crossing the line. They were both together and she was his. Ryan had that job. Jim had Pam. So, Jim won.

But he still wondered. Just a bit. “I am so tired,” she groaned. “Mary Cassatt, you are grounded after this.” He put his arm around Pam’s shoulders. Her body was warm and soft and he wished they were back in bed.

“Tell me a secret,” he said.

She smiled. “What is your obsession with this game?”

“I’m just trying to keep you awake.” He took the leash from Pam and tried to keep himself steady amidst the constant powerful tug forwards.

“Thanks. Okay, let’s see, you know so much. Oh,” she said, her face flickering with embarrassment. “Well, something I was realizing the other day, um, I fell out of love with Roy about two years ago.”

Wow. “Okay.”

“Don’t judge, I know you’re silently judging.” The pug stopped to mark her territory.

“I would never judge you.”

“Good.”

“But, just to be clear, you were going to marry a man you weren’t in love with? Cause that sounds awesome.”

Her eyes flared. “You want to trade stories about people making sensible choices?”

He bent forward to kiss her. “Nope. So, follow up question: when did you fall in love with me?”

She batted her eyes coquettishly and he was impressed that she could mock him while half asleep. “The first day we met… Or. Um. About two years ago?” He stared at her slack jawed until they were dragged to explore the next tree. The last two months had been this way, lots of truth bombs that the other had never suspected. “Tell me a secret,” she said, wiggling out of his partial embrace to hold his hand.

“I don’t think that I have one quite that good.”

“Try it out.”

For so long, Pam knew very little about him while still being his best friend. One truth would have led to another, and she’d have known it all. It was strange now – no need for secrets. “Well, on the theme of not being in love with people, I was never in love with Karen.”

He spotted a broken bottle and walked all three of them around it. She squeezed his hand appreciatively. “That’s not a secret. Baby.” Pam made a horrendous face. “No, that won’t work either. Sweetie.” Her project today had been finding acceptable terms of endearment. So far, honey, babe, love, baby and sweetie had been rejected.

“You’ll find it,” he said, “but seriously, you didn’t know that. I could’ve proposed to her. I could’ve been madly in love.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Is that why you broke up with her by a fountain?”

“It’s weird, I want to give you a noogie – kind of a weird thing.”

She stopped walking and her arms went around his neck, her lips to his. He smiled against her mouth and struggled to hold onto the leash. She sunk down to the ground from being on her tiptoes.

“Tell me a real secret,” she implored.

He searched his mind as they resumed their journey. He liked the way the weather felt against his skin – soft but potent. “Okay. This is the kind of thing I’d ask you to pinky swear about. If I was a ten year old girl.”

“You are a—“

“Yeah, yeah. So, uh, Freshman year—“ He could not believe he was telling her this. “Freshman year, I was at this party, and me and my friend Alex were the last one’s there, basically. So, you know, we’re drinking pretty heavily, it’s a Thursday night and we didn’t have class—“

“Did you kiss him?”

He stared at her in disbelief, then shook his head. “How in God’s name did you know where that was going?”

She shrugged. “I know you really well. I knew that story before it started. So. What was it like?”

“I don’t remember, and that’s not a cop out. I was so drunk it’s a surprise that I remember anything.”

She narrowed her eyes, searching for a better story, but he relented. “What’s his name?”

“Alex.” Jim looked away.

“Isn’t Ben’s partner named Alex? Oh my God, wouldn’t it be funny if—“ She stared at him wide-eyed. “Get the fuck out!”

He started to laugh in spite of himself, in spite of the late hour. He was with her. “Ben came home to visit, Alex and I were still friends, we all went out…”

She smiled. “All you Halperts are gay. Now there’s a secret.”

Mary Cassatt was starting to look tired, finally. “Jim, don’t pick her up,” she said, but it was too late. The pug settled into his arms.

“Let’s head back,” he said, “she needs to go to bed. Okay, Beesly. Tell me a secret.”

She shook her head. “It’s hard for me to talk about. I, uh, slept with someone.” For a second, his heart fell to the ground, until he saw her face. He grinned back.

“A real secret,” he said.

“Oh. Well. I was going to tell you this, eventually… um, one of my art teachers really liked that sketch I did. You know the one, in the field?”

“That one was awesome.” He had no idea what she was talking about.

“She suggested that I enroll in art school. Like a real, you know, art school. In New York or Chicago or somewhere.”

He put a smile on his face because that’s what should’ve been there. “That’s incredible. Wow. She must’ve been impressed.”

“I’m not gonna go, Jim,” she said quickly, too quickly. This was so not a discussion for the middle of the night, and he tried to stop himself from overthinking what he’d said. “Tell me a secret,” she whispered, putting one arm around him as he carried their dog.

“I don’t know, um, you kind of know everything about me.”

She yawned. “Well, you kissed a dude and I didn’t know until tonight.”

“Fair enough. I guess something you don’t know, well, I guess something nobody knows… I was offered Jan’s job.”

“Oh,” she said.

“I would’ve taken it, if it hadn’t been for a memo and yogurt lid.” She punched his arm and then settled back into his side. A moment of quiet passed between them.

“Do you regret not taking the job?”

His life felt full, after feeling empty for so long. There were no regrets and yet. He could not help but think about what would’ve been possible or who he could’ve been. He wondered if he took the job in a parallel universe, and if that Jim is bumping into Vince Vaughn, and if he’s with Karen or not. But the important truth at the end of the day is that he has never cared about bullshit like Italian suits. Or climbing the corporate ladder. He has her, and it scares him just a little that maybe she’s all he needs. He gave her the short version and said, “Absolutely not.”

He took them home, underneath the dark sky and air that feels like lead.

.end.


End file.
